Dive boat sinks off phuket

Interests:spending more than 500 hrs a year underwater gawking at marine life and taking the odd picture.

Posted 09 March 2009 - 01:14 AM

I just arrived in the office to hear that the liveaboard vessel MV Dive Asia I, http://www.diveasia....oards/boats.htm, belonging to Phuket based dive company Dive Asia sunk off the coast of Phuket late last night.

So far 25 people were rescued today at 1.30pm but six are still missing with 3hrs till sunset.

Interests:spending more than 500 hrs a year underwater gawking at marine life and taking the odd picture.

Posted 09 March 2009 - 03:04 AM

The Phi Phi boat was a snorkeling boat that was over capacity and when the wind picked all 60+ people headed to the top deck. The small boat got top heavy with all the people and in the swell went down. 1 guy died as he would not let go of the boat as it went down.

I just got the email as well this am. There are actually 7 missing and not 6 as reported by Benno and Jurgen. Apparently this squall was pretty darn heavy duty. Hopefully with the air search they'll find the missing passengers soon.
Yes the Jor Kingfisher, where one tourist died when it capsized in heavy seas. Of course it was overloaded by 200% at the time too.

Drew
Moderator
"Journalism is what someone else does not want printed, everything else is public relations."

"I was born not knowing, and have only had a little time to change that here and there.

Interests:spending more than 500 hrs a year underwater gawking at marine life and taking the odd picture.

Posted 09 March 2009 - 03:13 AM

I have known the captain of the boat for years and is a salty sea dog with many years of experience. The weather last night was fine, we had about 1hrs rain about 11pm and waves were no bigger than a half metre.

"about 12.6 nautical miles from Patong Beach"I am sure we all hope the remaining passengers are rescued very soon. I am not sure what “a red vortex” is, but the captain apparently had 10 minutes to point the vessel into the squall. The ferry has a lot of freeboard, so taking this storm on the aft port quarter could surely roll her over.

I'm sure "squall" doesn't do the actual weather justice. It must have been extreme and sudden indeed to catch an experienced captain off guard.

Many of us have all been on boats when wind and/or rain hit suddenly, but this is one of the nightmares we all hope we'll never face!

I really hope they find the rest of the people who were aboard...

Bruce Yateswww.UnderwaterReflections.com
Lumix GX8 in Nauticam, Canon 5DMkII in Aquatica, 1DsMkII in Seacam, G15 in RecSea...Inon Z240's...too many lenses"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damned fool about it." WC Fields